Retail Demo Mode

Android 7.1.1 and later offer system-level support for retail mode so
users may readily examine the devices in action. Android 8.1 revises
this support to create demo users via Device Policy Manager. This
allows much greater OEM customization to the standard retail mode.

Android 8.1 and later

Through Device Policy Manager, Android 8.1 supports demonstrating
device functionality to users in retail stores. While Device Policy Manager's
APIs can be used on versions prior to 8.1, demo-type users cannot be created
with
createAndManageUser prior to 8.1.

Implementation

Provisioning

Set Settings.Global.DEVICE_DEMO_MODE to 1 prior to
provisioning to indicate that the device should enter retail mode. System
Server will use this flag to manage aspects of retail mode, such as power
profile. In addition, retail employees must grant device ownership to the
demo application. Once a consumer setup is complete, device owners cannot
be set.

Creating the demo application

Device owner apps do not need elevated privileges or pre-installation on the
system image. They are mostly implemented like traditional apps, with the
following differences:

All device owner apps must extend the DeviceAdminReceiver
component, which serves as the authorization token for all Device Policy
Manager APIs. The component must hold the android.permission.BIND_DEVICE_ADMIN
permission, include the requested special policies as metadata, and filter the
android.app.action.PROFILE_PROVISIONING_COMPLETE and
android.app.action.DEVICE_ADMIN_ENABLED intents.

The DevicePolicyManager#MAKE_USER_DEMO flag, which is set
to create special demo-type users, is a hidden API. This flag is a constant 0x4.

Device ownership can be assigned only via Managed Provisioning.

Device Policy Manager

Device Policy Manager APIs grant all Device Owner (DO) and Profile Owner (PO)
rights, except for installing packages, which is automatically allowed. A PO
affiliated with a DO can use an AIDL interface to access rights that are only
granted to the DO. Functionality available includes:

Create users. Users created through the DevicePolicyManager are
automatically set as PO.

Switch users.

Set the permission policy to PERMISSION_POLICY_AUTO_GRANT
which will automatically grant all runtime permissions. Permissions can also be
granted more narrowly: a single permission to a single app. This does not
apply to Appops permissions, which users must still grant on a per-user,
per-app basis.

Add user restrictions. Restrictions relevant to retail mode may include,
but are not limited to:

Examples and additional resources

Validation

CTS does not cover Retail Demo Mode because it is an optional feature. Testing
should be conducted manually or with unit tests for the demo application.

Android 8.0 and earlier

Android 7.1.1 introduced retail demo mode and provided a simple API to play a
demonstration video. This implementation was removed in Android 8.1.

Lifecycle

Figure 1. Retail demonstration mode option in Language selection

Setup Wizard (SUW)

Retail employees can enable retail mode directly from the first screen of any setup
wizard by selecting the language Retail demo at the bottom of
the list. This option is available for new devices shipped fresh from the
factory. Once a consumer setup has completed, retail mode may no longer be
available. Once selected, the device finishes SUW with an abbreviated flow.

Figure 2. Retail demonstration mode option in Language
selection

Guest session

When the device enters retail mode, it switches to a new demo user and
automatically starts the custom launcher specified in the overlay resource
(described under Implementation). By default, this custom launcher plays the
demo video on repeat until the user touches the screen to begin a guest session.
At that time, the custom launcher starts the system launcher and then exits.
OEMs can alter the custom launcher to additionally launch another service or
activity on exit. See the Implementation section for details.

In order to maintain the integrity of retail mode, keyguard is disabled and
certain actions from Quick Settings that could adversely affect retail mode are
also disallowed, including:

Airplane mode toggle

Removing or modifying Wi-Fi access points (Settings)

Changing carrier (Settings)

Configuring hotspot (Settings)

User switching

Additionally, access is also blocked to some global settings that can affect
retail mode by disabling:

Wi-Fi settings

Cellular network configuration options, particularly hotspots

Bluetooth configuration

Backup & Reset, Date & Time, and Mobile Networks (they do not show up at
all)

If the user is idle for some period of time (90 seconds by default), retail mode
will show a system dialog to prompt the user to either exit the session or
continue. If the user chooses to exit or if there's no response for five
seconds, retail mode kills/wipes the current demo user, switches to a new demo
user, and loops through the original video again. If someone turns off the
screen using the power button, it comes back on automatically after a few
seconds.

Exiting retail mode

In order to exit retail mode, retail employees must factory reset the device
from the boot loader.

Examples and source

Find the custom launcher that plays a video in a loop within:

/packages/apps/RetailDemo

Implementation

Enabling RetailDemoModeService

Setup wizard sets a Global setting Global.DEVICE_DEMO_MODE=true to
indicate that the device has entered retail mode. Upon seeing this setting,
RetailDemoModeService creates and switches to demo user when user 0
is started, enables the custom launcher specified in an overlay resource, and
disables SUW. System Server and SystemUI also use this flag to manage aspects
of retail mode.

Setting custom launcher or
video player

<!-- Component that is the default launcher when Retail Mode is enabled. -->
<string name="config_demoModeLauncherComponent">com.android.retaildemo/.DemoPlayer</string>

The retail demo DemoPlayer app located at
/packages/apps/RetailDemo is the default custom launcher in the
Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The app looks for a video in
/data/preloads/demo/retail_demo.mp4 and plays it in a loop. When
the user touches the screen, the custom launcher disables its activity
component, which results in the default system launcher starting up.

The custom launcher must have its custom component marked as disabled by default so that it
doesn't show up in non-demo scenarios. In the demo scenario, System Server
enables the specified config_demoModeLauncherComponent when
starting a new demo session.

Setup wizard also looks for the above video to provide an affordance to enter
retail mode. SUW can be modified to look for some other OEM-specific sign that
retail mode is supported if the video is not a part of the demo.

If there are system A/B partitions, the system B partition must contain the demo
video at /preloads/demo. This gets copied to
/data/preloads/demo on first boot.

Note: 90000 milliseconds is the current
timeout default but is configurable.

Finding sample images

This feature places sample photos in a special folder that is visible to any
gallery app. The photos are available only in demo mode and cannot be modified
by the demo user as they are in a protected directory.

Preventing Google accounts

Certain restrictions are set in the guest user, similar to managed
device/profile policies that prevent apps and users from performing certain
operations. One of these restrictions is DISALLOW_MODIFY_ACCOUNTS.
With this restriction, AccountManager and Settings do not allow the addition of
accounts. Some Google apps react to this restriction and show an error message,
and others will not prompt for an account (such as YouTube and Photos).

OEM apps should also check if DISALLOW_MODIFY_ACCOUNTS is set. But this is a
general problem not unique to retail mode. It is likely already solved for
enterprise use cases.

Customizing the system launcher

OEMs are free to choose their layout but should include apps that function well
on the home screen and hotseat.

Customizing built-in apps for retail demo mode

Built-in apps may have their experience for retail demo mode customized by
calling the API UserManager.isDemoUser() to see if the app is
launched in a demo environment.

Following demo video guidelines

Demonstration videos should be in portrait layout (or natural orientation of the
device, if tablet) and can be any length greater than five seconds. Content
should not result in burn-in, since it will be played 24/7 when on display.

Maintenance

Bringing the device out of
retail mode

This can be done only by factory resetting from the boot loader.

Auto-OTA of system software

By default, when retail mode is enabled, device policy is set to over-the-air
(OTA) update automatically. Retail devices will download, reboot, and install
the update (respecting battery thresholds) without confirmation even if it is
marked as optional.

Caution:
If using System A/B partitions for OTA, once an OTA is received, the device
cannot find original retail mode resources in the System B partition. So any
subsequent factory reset will result in an inability to go back into retail
mode.

Updating demo video via the web

The RetailDemo app in /packages/apps/RetailDemo has the ability to
update the demo video if there is network connectivity. The URL to download the
video from can be configured by overriding the following string value in the
RetailDemo app:

If different videos need to be used in different regions, then different
download URLs can be configured by using locale-specific string resources
res/values-*/strings.xml. For example, if different videos need to
be used in the U.S. and the U.K., then corresponding download URLs can be placed
in res/values-en-rUS/strings.xml and
res/values-en-rGB/strings.xml, respectively.

This video will be downloaded at most once per every device reboot. When the
video on the device is being played, RetailDemo app will check in the background
if the download URL is provided and the video at the URL is newer than the one
being played.

If so, RetailDemo app will download this video and start playing
it. Once this video is downloaded, the downloaded video will be used for playing
in the demo sessions going forward. None of the checks happen again until after
next reboot.

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